"That's Spanish for "the Ego is not my - Amigo", which was how Arj Barker set the tone for his stand-up show when Toby and I went along on Sunday night.
We were both really excited before we went and couldn't wait for the show to start. It was at the RMIT Capitol Theatre, and even though the show was still in "preview" mode, the whole place was jammed. I guess we caught on a little late, as it became pretty clear that he's got quite a lot of fans here (this was his third visit) and I'm guessing he didn't disappoint any of them.
His jokes were great, really funny and all (I laughed and laughed) but I was, however, a tad let down. I was slightly annoyed by the devices he used to generate the laughs. Firstly, he turned his routine into a mock New Age "Seminar" and of course he was the guru. I don't have a problem with people taking the piss out of the New Age-ers (they deserve it for the most part), but I'd hoped for a slightly more sophisticated way of putting his points across. And his points were GOOD. Like the rights of gays who want to get married (Magaret Cho's been going on about this too, but I like the way she tackles it better), like yoga being good for you, like it's good to be nice to people and of course, like being aware of that your ego is er, not your amigo...
So first of all he went around and gave a few people their "Joy" names, which were pretty funny, but it was stuff like "What's your name?? Cheryl? Ok, your Joy name is "Eagle-breath". Yeah-yeah....hey I still laughed, but that was kinda the way it went all night.
He finished his show with a short "info-mercial" for his Labradorian cult (a group of extraterrestrials that had the bodies of humans but the visage of a Labrador) and that was pretty funny too, but by the end of it, I just wanted something more....creative.
Still, I'm not complaining. I was happy that I went. I had a great night. I would probably even pay to see him again. And even if he did have to take the "easy" road by poking fun at all these things to get his points across, he was still better than most comedians on offer at the Festival, and yes, had way better things to to make me laugh about.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Sunday, March 27, 2005
The Great Cosmic Treasure Hunt
Wow Easter's here again.
For "normal" people that usually means swapping meat for hot cross buns and Easter eggs, and going to Church services or at least hanging out with the family for a few hours and going home having consumed far too much chocolate.
For many of my disco friends the "Resurrection" is actually the name of a gay/leather dance party, and Easter Sunday is one of the biggest dates in the clubbing year. Since most of them have usually been up since Thursday, by the time Saturday's come-down arrives, I guess you could say that's the clubbing version of the Harrowing of Hell, and Easter Sunday is the Dancefloor Resurrection.
Toby and I have been having a lovely lazy time at home, away from the clubs, except for Friday night when I played my weekly residency at the new night, Wonderland. It was a really good party, and after a successful opening last week, this week's turn-out was even better. People were queuing outside at 9pm, which is rare, but we were doing the recovery for the all-day party Rawhide, so the club was pumping by 11pm. There were some good heads in there too. It's an older, more club-savvy crowd, and they like good music.
We like that very much.
Toby and I spent most of yesterday playing records and talking about everything and anything that took our fancy, but our conversation often veered into deeper waters. We talked about the Terry Schiavo case, which I've been following for a couple of years now, thanks to Joyce and Dave at the Power Hour. We both agree that if she's allowed to die, it could lead to a series of events that trigger a civil war over there. Not a nice thought, but there it is. We jumped around a lot of topics, from the John Titor story and time-travel, to 80's music and sample-spotting, to the dark matter in the universe, to sacred geometry and cymatics, to planning our trip to see the 2006 Solar Eclipse from Turkey next year, to funny stories from our crazy lives - we went all over the place and as usual, had plenty of fun.
We are also very pleased because Toby just bought a sampler (for making music), but we're actually more excited by the fact that we can do speech reversals with it! We can't wait, it's going to be brilliant when we start finding them ourselves. Check some reversals out if you're not familiar with them, they're amazing. And later tonight we're off to see Arj Barker at the Comedy Festival. Should be unreal. I'll write a review tomorrow, but as soon as I saw his show description I knew I had to see him. Basically, it sounds like he's already doing the kind of stand-up I want to do, so, cool.
"Greeting Joyous Beings! Let us explore the emerging awareness of humanity and the ongoing journey towards super consciousness. Hear the secrets of Yoga, Meditation and Apple Juice! Find out why is your stubborn ego keeping you from being as awesome as I am. Most importantly learn to live withour fear - Before its too late!!" - Arj
For the last few months I've been quietly getting some material together to for a stand-up routine of my own. I have always thought that I'd like to try it as I love seeing live comedy, but it was the fabulous Margaret Cho that really made me decide to go for it. She inspired me so much and I feel as though our lives parallel in many ways. I'd love it if I wound up doing gigs at Star Trek conventions and Mind Body Spirit Festivals - can you imagine? I'd probably open up my set at a Trekkie convention by saying that I was to there to have a threesome with Seven... and what self-respecting Trekkie could argue with that? So yeah, you know, it'd be that sort of thing along with some deep stuff thrown in for good measure.
I think this is a great time of the year. We've just begun the new astrological year with Aries, giving us the opportunity to set our intentions for the coming Astrological year, as well as for visions of ourselves to be created and built upon, so use this time for those new projects or revisit things that have been left for awhile. This is the month to get them going.
In times past, when humans lived on this planet in harmony with the cycles of nature, spiritual orders such as the Druids who live in the Northern hemisphere would commemorate their Spring rites. The Easter symbols of the egg (signifying re-birth) and the bunny (a symbol of fertility) have probably come down to us from these times, well before Jesus walked the Earth.
In the Judaic tradition, this full moon is when they celebrate Passover, commemorating the Exodus from Egypt, when the Jews were also beginning a new chapter of their history.
It's no mistake that it's also the time we remember the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, as these events also remind us of new life, and new cycles of evolution. His birth ushered in the beginning of the Piscean Age, with its dominating qualities of religious devotion, martyrdom and looking outside of one's self for the answers. Now roughly 2000 years on, the Aquarian energies are beating at the door. We can expect the next 2000-odd year cycle to be dominated by qualities such as self-discipleship (which involves trusting our own thoughts and feelings much more than we do now) and hopefully, the strengthening of the brotherhood of man. During the overlap, which we're in right now, you can see how the two very distinct types of energy compete and create turmoil as people adjust, or not.
One of my first memories is of rejecting Catholicism and organised religion at age 3 - it's quite a story (but I'll save it for another time), and now as an adult, I can see why it was important to me to do that. The short version is that even at that tender age I could see it wasn't the path for me, and perhaps after you read the following excerpt, you will understand that I needed more. A LOT more.
Seeing that it's that time of year, I'd like to offer a more expanded perspective on the life of Jesus, from "Alchemy of the Nine Dimensions", which is currently at the top of my reading list.
"Andromeda created a program 2000 years ago called the "Cosmic Restart Button". They sent Christ, a 9D Messiah (singer of God's frequencies), to Earth. He came to re-awaken love within the human heart so that each person could heal from trauma, and the P's say our DNA reformulates by love. (See the cellular biologist Bruce Lipton's work at Stanford, who confirms this fact - Liz). In those days, the people got the message because Christ was human in all ways and infused his blood into Earth. The truth is, Christ fathered children, a seminal act that awakened Earth's biology. This story - the hidden teaching of the Holy Grail - has been carefully guarded; the Messiah threatened the Elite plan to control Earth. Regardless of the Elite agenda, Andromeda is the Keeper of 7D for Earth - their "Cosmic Restart Button" is working - and now our galaxy is being informed about harmonic biology and undamaged DNA.
For "normal" people that usually means swapping meat for hot cross buns and Easter eggs, and going to Church services or at least hanging out with the family for a few hours and going home having consumed far too much chocolate.
For many of my disco friends the "Resurrection" is actually the name of a gay/leather dance party, and Easter Sunday is one of the biggest dates in the clubbing year. Since most of them have usually been up since Thursday, by the time Saturday's come-down arrives, I guess you could say that's the clubbing version of the Harrowing of Hell, and Easter Sunday is the Dancefloor Resurrection.
Toby and I have been having a lovely lazy time at home, away from the clubs, except for Friday night when I played my weekly residency at the new night, Wonderland. It was a really good party, and after a successful opening last week, this week's turn-out was even better. People were queuing outside at 9pm, which is rare, but we were doing the recovery for the all-day party Rawhide, so the club was pumping by 11pm. There were some good heads in there too. It's an older, more club-savvy crowd, and they like good music.
We like that very much.
Toby and I spent most of yesterday playing records and talking about everything and anything that took our fancy, but our conversation often veered into deeper waters. We talked about the Terry Schiavo case, which I've been following for a couple of years now, thanks to Joyce and Dave at the Power Hour. We both agree that if she's allowed to die, it could lead to a series of events that trigger a civil war over there. Not a nice thought, but there it is. We jumped around a lot of topics, from the John Titor story and time-travel, to 80's music and sample-spotting, to the dark matter in the universe, to sacred geometry and cymatics, to planning our trip to see the 2006 Solar Eclipse from Turkey next year, to funny stories from our crazy lives - we went all over the place and as usual, had plenty of fun.
We are also very pleased because Toby just bought a sampler (for making music), but we're actually more excited by the fact that we can do speech reversals with it! We can't wait, it's going to be brilliant when we start finding them ourselves. Check some reversals out if you're not familiar with them, they're amazing. And later tonight we're off to see Arj Barker at the Comedy Festival. Should be unreal. I'll write a review tomorrow, but as soon as I saw his show description I knew I had to see him. Basically, it sounds like he's already doing the kind of stand-up I want to do, so, cool.
"Greeting Joyous Beings! Let us explore the emerging awareness of humanity and the ongoing journey towards super consciousness. Hear the secrets of Yoga, Meditation and Apple Juice! Find out why is your stubborn ego keeping you from being as awesome as I am. Most importantly learn to live withour fear - Before its too late!!" - Arj
For the last few months I've been quietly getting some material together to for a stand-up routine of my own. I have always thought that I'd like to try it as I love seeing live comedy, but it was the fabulous Margaret Cho that really made me decide to go for it. She inspired me so much and I feel as though our lives parallel in many ways. I'd love it if I wound up doing gigs at Star Trek conventions and Mind Body Spirit Festivals - can you imagine? I'd probably open up my set at a Trekkie convention by saying that I was to there to have a threesome with Seven... and what self-respecting Trekkie could argue with that? So yeah, you know, it'd be that sort of thing along with some deep stuff thrown in for good measure.
I think this is a great time of the year. We've just begun the new astrological year with Aries, giving us the opportunity to set our intentions for the coming Astrological year, as well as for visions of ourselves to be created and built upon, so use this time for those new projects or revisit things that have been left for awhile. This is the month to get them going.
In times past, when humans lived on this planet in harmony with the cycles of nature, spiritual orders such as the Druids who live in the Northern hemisphere would commemorate their Spring rites. The Easter symbols of the egg (signifying re-birth) and the bunny (a symbol of fertility) have probably come down to us from these times, well before Jesus walked the Earth.
In the Judaic tradition, this full moon is when they celebrate Passover, commemorating the Exodus from Egypt, when the Jews were also beginning a new chapter of their history.
It's no mistake that it's also the time we remember the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, as these events also remind us of new life, and new cycles of evolution. His birth ushered in the beginning of the Piscean Age, with its dominating qualities of religious devotion, martyrdom and looking outside of one's self for the answers. Now roughly 2000 years on, the Aquarian energies are beating at the door. We can expect the next 2000-odd year cycle to be dominated by qualities such as self-discipleship (which involves trusting our own thoughts and feelings much more than we do now) and hopefully, the strengthening of the brotherhood of man. During the overlap, which we're in right now, you can see how the two very distinct types of energy compete and create turmoil as people adjust, or not.
One of my first memories is of rejecting Catholicism and organised religion at age 3 - it's quite a story (but I'll save it for another time), and now as an adult, I can see why it was important to me to do that. The short version is that even at that tender age I could see it wasn't the path for me, and perhaps after you read the following excerpt, you will understand that I needed more. A LOT more.
Seeing that it's that time of year, I'd like to offer a more expanded perspective on the life of Jesus, from "Alchemy of the Nine Dimensions", which is currently at the top of my reading list.
To preface the excerpt here are a couple of points for context:
- Earth experienced a huge cataclysm around 11,500 years ago, and we all suffer a type of post-traumatic stress disorder that has been passed down to us via our ancestral DNA.
- Andromeda, the closest spiral galaxy to ours, is actually converging with the Milky Way, while all others are moving away.
- The P's say Andromeda has a huge influence on the Milky Way, especially in our solar system, since within the Andromeda Galaxy there is a similar solar system to ours. In it is a planet called Aion, which is like Earth in every way, the only difference is that Aion did not suffer a cataclysm like we did, its inhabitants are devoid of collective trauma, and they freely interact with the higher dimensions.
- The P's also say that Aion's population direct their culture by employing sacred science using light and sound codes, and some of these transmissions are directed at Earth.
- These transmissions are now being picked up by astronomers (although they still don't understand their place of origin). Check out this amazing story from Linda Moulton Howe's Earthfiles on March 3, about a report in British journal Nature about a powerful and repeating burst of radio waves detected toward the centre of our Milky Way galaxy that are unlike any other radio bursts ever monitored on Earth.
The beautiful Andromeda Galaxy
This excerpt is from the chapter entitled
"The Seventh Dimension: The Galactic Highways of Light".
"Andromeda created a program 2000 years ago called the "Cosmic Restart Button". They sent Christ, a 9D Messiah (singer of God's frequencies), to Earth. He came to re-awaken love within the human heart so that each person could heal from trauma, and the P's say our DNA reformulates by love. (See the cellular biologist Bruce Lipton's work at Stanford, who confirms this fact - Liz). In those days, the people got the message because Christ was human in all ways and infused his blood into Earth. The truth is, Christ fathered children, a seminal act that awakened Earth's biology. This story - the hidden teaching of the Holy Grail - has been carefully guarded; the Messiah threatened the Elite plan to control Earth. Regardless of the Elite agenda, Andromeda is the Keeper of 7D for Earth - their "Cosmic Restart Button" is working - and now our galaxy is being informed about harmonic biology and undamaged DNA.
The P's also tell us that the new energy coming to Earth from Andromeda is being received in our hearts. Christ seeded humanity with grace, which draws each one of us to a new level. We are withdrawing from the Elite organised religions and reclaiming the sacred. Satya, saucy as usual, says we are remembering the "erotic" Christ, the cosmic progenitor of humankind. Organised religions deny the very nature of the alchemical male, which is why this juicy force has been perverted into sexual abuse. The building wave of grace is freeing the minds of the people, who feel the potency of the Grail. Many people now know that Christ was married to Mary Magdalene, and that he seeded a 9D bloodline into Earth's people."
From "Alchemy of the Nine Dimensions" by Barbara Hand Clow with Gerry Clow
(Hamption Roads Publishing 2004).
(Hamption Roads Publishing 2004).
Thursday, March 24, 2005
"What does love mean?"
"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
Book Freak vs Home Owner, You Decide
Hovering, gliding, circling, diving...my reading habits have been like this lately.
I found out recently that the mythologist and Star Wars storyline collaborator, Joseph Campbell was an obssessive reader. He'd go out to dinner parties or other important functions and often, when he thought no-one would notice, he'd escape to a quiet corner somewhere and read. Luckily for him, his wife was smart enough to know before she married that even she would have to play second fiddle to his other love, books.
It made me feel a little better this morning when I finally decided to gather up the pile that has accumulated on my bedside over the last few weeks. Luckily for me, Toby loves reading as much as I do, but even he had escaped to his own room for the second night running because I was up late reading.
I knew the pile was getting big when I spotted an ant because it was on the only a square inch left on the cream coloured surface. Let's just say I like to have a "few" books going at once.
What I'm reading right now:
Alchemy of the Nine Dimensions - Barbara and Gerry Clow
Hampton Roads
I'm LOVING this. Yes yes yes. The P's rock again.
The Lost Hall of Records - John van Auken, Laura Little Ed.D
Eagle Wing Books
Comes with a free DVD of their adventures at Piedras Negras in Guatelmala on the hunt for the Mayan lost hall of records. Fabulous.
The Artist's Way - Julia Cameron w/ Mark Bryan
Putnam Books
I decided to pick this one up again after 3 years of ownership. It's time. Morning pages here I come.
The Hero With A Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell
Fontana Press
I bought this a couple of weeks ago when I decided to write a movie. If it worked for Star Wars, it'll work for me.
New Dawn Magazine - current issue
New Gnosis Publications
Brilliant article by Jose as usual, and an awesome piece on the alchemist Fulcanelli.
And this is the rest of the pile; the new, used and abused:
Mysteries of Atlantis Revisited - Edgar Evans Cayce
St Martins Paperbacks
The title is better than the book, but I love Cayce's work and it's written by one of his sons. It's good in places and the Atlantean timeline stuff is handy.
Time and the Technosphere - Jose Arguelles
The Mayan Factor - Jose Arguelles
Bear and Co
Two books that have changed my life. I have them nearby always.
Astronomy Australia 2005
Quasar Publishing
Always the backyard astronomer.
The Field - Lynne Mc Taggart
Harper Collins
This book is so unbelievably good I've bought two copies so I can loan one out at all times. "A wonderful exploration into third millenium science ...that liberates consciousness and restores it to its majestic and rightful position as a causal power in the universe." Right, who's next?
Emissary of Love - James Twyman
Walsch Books
This one was in the pile because I found Arkiane (see Indigo kids post) and I really wanted to read some quotes from the children again.
Here's one:
"It only seems as though there are a lot of us here. There really aren't. There's really only one of us, like all the psychic children that know about one another. We know about one another beause we're joined together, and someday all of the adults of this world will realize the same thing."
Everyday Immortality - Deepak Chopra
Rider Books
You're meant to do a page a day. It's deep. I did it in 15 minutes...
...'m I bad?
Rule By Secrecy - Jim Marrs
Perennial Books
Toby devoured this. I'm preppin' to do the same.
Family Of Light - Barbara Marciniak
Bear & Co.
This book has not left my side since I got it.
Introducing Quantum Theory - J.P. McEvoy & Oscar Zarate
Icon Books
I know you wouldn't think it but this is actually quite funny. It's got loads of complicated drawings describing the properties of waves and particles and headings like "Consciousness and the collapsing wave function" are to be found throughout. I especially like the mad drawings of all the early quantum theorists trying to look cool, and early on we see Galileo demonstating how he has discovered a flaw in Aristotle's physics while Aristotle himself appears in a circular cutaway saying, "Oh stop showing off!"
The Magic Of The Crystals - Fransisco Bostrom
Merrill West Publishing
One man's story of connecting with a South American shamanic crystal healer. There's some new stuff on crystals in here that will come in very useful.
Pleiadian Perspectives On Human Evolution - Amorah Quan Yin
Bear & Co.
I want to read this again. The first time was so important for me - it was shortly after the eclipse in 2002. I wept.
I've been too gutless to follow the instructions on removing the memory virus we've all got until recently though, so I pulled it off the shelf along with the Epsom Salts, and I'm making a date with myself for next week.
Journey Into the New Millenium Transmissions From Sirius - Wendy Munroe
Triad
I was given this years ago by one of my best friends Jan. I've had this urge to read it again, but it hasn't happened yet. I found out in this book that my birthday (July 23), co-incides with the opening of the Sirian stargate that is only open for a fifty-five day period each year. On my birthday, Sirius rises a minute before the Sun. This is also coincides with the yearly flooding of the Nile, which may explain why all the temples along the Nile are built facing the light of Sirius.
Rock Medicine - Sela Weidemann Randazzo
Blue Dolphin Publishing
I became obssessed with crystals late last year, a few weeks after I had a healing called "The Re-connection". I'm sure a few of you have heard of Eric Pearl. Anyway, it was crazy. Then Ii heard Sela on the radio and I could tell she was for real, so I shelled out $50 bucks for her book and I haven't looked back. I use crystal essences, use them hand-held, or as a focus direct on a daily basis and they work.
Along with my sizeable record collection, I look at my books and realise this is why I don't own my own house. Or a car.
I found out recently that the mythologist and Star Wars storyline collaborator, Joseph Campbell was an obssessive reader. He'd go out to dinner parties or other important functions and often, when he thought no-one would notice, he'd escape to a quiet corner somewhere and read. Luckily for him, his wife was smart enough to know before she married that even she would have to play second fiddle to his other love, books.
It made me feel a little better this morning when I finally decided to gather up the pile that has accumulated on my bedside over the last few weeks. Luckily for me, Toby loves reading as much as I do, but even he had escaped to his own room for the second night running because I was up late reading.
I knew the pile was getting big when I spotted an ant because it was on the only a square inch left on the cream coloured surface. Let's just say I like to have a "few" books going at once.
What I'm reading right now:
Alchemy of the Nine Dimensions - Barbara and Gerry Clow
Hampton Roads
I'm LOVING this. Yes yes yes. The P's rock again.
The Lost Hall of Records - John van Auken, Laura Little Ed.D
Eagle Wing Books
Comes with a free DVD of their adventures at Piedras Negras in Guatelmala on the hunt for the Mayan lost hall of records. Fabulous.
The Artist's Way - Julia Cameron w/ Mark Bryan
Putnam Books
I decided to pick this one up again after 3 years of ownership. It's time. Morning pages here I come.
The Hero With A Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell
Fontana Press
I bought this a couple of weeks ago when I decided to write a movie. If it worked for Star Wars, it'll work for me.
New Dawn Magazine - current issue
New Gnosis Publications
Brilliant article by Jose as usual, and an awesome piece on the alchemist Fulcanelli.
And this is the rest of the pile; the new, used and abused:
Mysteries of Atlantis Revisited - Edgar Evans Cayce
St Martins Paperbacks
The title is better than the book, but I love Cayce's work and it's written by one of his sons. It's good in places and the Atlantean timeline stuff is handy.
Time and the Technosphere - Jose Arguelles
The Mayan Factor - Jose Arguelles
Bear and Co
Two books that have changed my life. I have them nearby always.
Astronomy Australia 2005
Quasar Publishing
Always the backyard astronomer.
The Field - Lynne Mc Taggart
Harper Collins
This book is so unbelievably good I've bought two copies so I can loan one out at all times. "A wonderful exploration into third millenium science ...that liberates consciousness and restores it to its majestic and rightful position as a causal power in the universe." Right, who's next?
Emissary of Love - James Twyman
Walsch Books
This one was in the pile because I found Arkiane (see Indigo kids post) and I really wanted to read some quotes from the children again.
Here's one:
"It only seems as though there are a lot of us here. There really aren't. There's really only one of us, like all the psychic children that know about one another. We know about one another beause we're joined together, and someday all of the adults of this world will realize the same thing."
Everyday Immortality - Deepak Chopra
Rider Books
You're meant to do a page a day. It's deep. I did it in 15 minutes...
...'m I bad?
Rule By Secrecy - Jim Marrs
Perennial Books
Toby devoured this. I'm preppin' to do the same.
Family Of Light - Barbara Marciniak
Bear & Co.
This book has not left my side since I got it.
Introducing Quantum Theory - J.P. McEvoy & Oscar Zarate
Icon Books
I know you wouldn't think it but this is actually quite funny. It's got loads of complicated drawings describing the properties of waves and particles and headings like "Consciousness and the collapsing wave function" are to be found throughout. I especially like the mad drawings of all the early quantum theorists trying to look cool, and early on we see Galileo demonstating how he has discovered a flaw in Aristotle's physics while Aristotle himself appears in a circular cutaway saying, "Oh stop showing off!"
The Magic Of The Crystals - Fransisco Bostrom
Merrill West Publishing
One man's story of connecting with a South American shamanic crystal healer. There's some new stuff on crystals in here that will come in very useful.
Pleiadian Perspectives On Human Evolution - Amorah Quan Yin
Bear & Co.
I want to read this again. The first time was so important for me - it was shortly after the eclipse in 2002. I wept.
I've been too gutless to follow the instructions on removing the memory virus we've all got until recently though, so I pulled it off the shelf along with the Epsom Salts, and I'm making a date with myself for next week.
Journey Into the New Millenium Transmissions From Sirius - Wendy Munroe
Triad
I was given this years ago by one of my best friends Jan. I've had this urge to read it again, but it hasn't happened yet. I found out in this book that my birthday (July 23), co-incides with the opening of the Sirian stargate that is only open for a fifty-five day period each year. On my birthday, Sirius rises a minute before the Sun. This is also coincides with the yearly flooding of the Nile, which may explain why all the temples along the Nile are built facing the light of Sirius.
Rock Medicine - Sela Weidemann Randazzo
Blue Dolphin Publishing
I became obssessed with crystals late last year, a few weeks after I had a healing called "The Re-connection". I'm sure a few of you have heard of Eric Pearl. Anyway, it was crazy. Then Ii heard Sela on the radio and I could tell she was for real, so I shelled out $50 bucks for her book and I haven't looked back. I use crystal essences, use them hand-held, or as a focus direct on a daily basis and they work.
Along with my sizeable record collection, I look at my books and realise this is why I don't own my own house. Or a car.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Calling All Noospheric Chips
Got something to say? I've just set up a messageboard for this page. I've sent a test email to see if it works, and wow, it does. Please use it to post anything that you think we'd all like.
No grumps.
No grumps.
Monday, March 21, 2005
Dizzy's Groove
Dizzy - Love Frequency Generator
Meet Dizzy. He's super-cool. Our street's very own Pimp Daddy Mack. His big fur coat, charming ways and self-assured laid back attitude have won him many fans in our 'hood. He's also got a penchant for making nests out of leaves to lounge in during the day, while he hangs out in the front garden waiting for the next pretty lady to walk past and stop and pat him. And he's actually got regulars!
You can see him here, hanging out on my bed last winter, when his chocolate-coloured fur was looking particularly resplendent. But that's not why I posted this photo. Check out the right hand side of the image. Yep, it's another orb, but this one's moving!
You can see how wide it is by looking at the top right corner of the shot. I think it took me a couple of weeks before I even realised there was something weird there, but luckily I'd taken another picture about 30 seconds later from the same angle. And there it is again, only this time it has definitely moved. You can see how much by checking out the monitor screen behind it. I wish more of it was in the photo, but I know it wasn't the flash - look at the regular curves along the side, the flare from it at the top right corner and the way it thins out at the bottom edge - in both shots.
It's pretty hard to stay angry about anything when Dizzy's around, and maybe that was why this orb was attracted to him. He's a mean love frequency generator, and when these photos were taken Dizzy and I had been having a lot of fun making his mane look huge and imposing, and he was loving the attention. He has this low gutterral purr, which Toby thinks sounds just like Barry White, and I agree. It's pretty funny. And when he walks into a room, he'll take a good long look at you, and within seconds the the purring will kick in. I'm sure he's really saying, "Hey baby, are you ready for some lovin'?"
Toby says this photo really messes with his tough guy image, but I come home to this sort of behaviour all the time...there might not be any orbs in this one, but there's something very Barry White-ish going on nonetheless...good thing we're both fans.
Friday, March 18, 2005
Orbs and other Anomalies
A composite shot from Andrea Corsick's awesome orb gallery.
I love orbs! In fact I love most anomalous images. I've been fascinated with these things for awhile, and if you do a search for orbs on the net, there are some great examples around.
Here's another brilliant link to the
Interdimensional Gallery's collection.
So what are they? Of course, in some of the shots you'll come across on the web, what you're seeing are just dust particles, but you can usually spot a genuine orb once you become experienced at it. A good tip is to look for movement in the shot. If the orb has a trail then it can't be dust. Dust shots usually result in the picture being too full of orbs; and some "orbs" are just reflected light. Most genuine orbs are often shot near where children or adults are playing, or in and around houses, and sometimes out in nature or in the sky. I've seen some good ones captured at sacred sites and cemeteries too.
So what are they? Of course, in some of the shots you'll come across on the web, what you're seeing are just dust particles, but you can usually spot a genuine orb once you become experienced at it. A good tip is to look for movement in the shot. If the orb has a trail then it can't be dust. Dust shots usually result in the picture being too full of orbs; and some "orbs" are just reflected light. Most genuine orbs are often shot near where children or adults are playing, or in and around houses, and sometimes out in nature or in the sky. I've seen some good ones captured at sacred sites and cemeteries too.
Since the digital revolution began, a great deal of paranormal research has been undertaken with just digital cameras and recorders, which is cheap and easy for the novice. The sampling rate on these devices seems to allow for more of these anomalous images or sounds to be caught on film. They see better than our eyes can see, and hear better than our ears can hear. If these things are existing at a density or frequency just above 3-D, then it would make sense that detecting their presence would be much easier with gadgets such as these. With the photographs, the orbs only show up after the shot has been taken. Electronic Voice Phenomena is captured by digital audio recorders, and basically some guy or girl stands somewhere with a microphone, asks a question to an empty room, records silence, and then checks the tape later for any disembodied voices that may appear. I've heard plenty of EVP, and it seems to be another genuine phenomena. Spooky though, especially when a child's voice comes through and you can hear them speaking QUITE clearly.
Here's a fabulous group shot from a weekend workshop called Crystal Earth Shamanism that I participated in last year on the Halloween weekend Oct 30 & 31. It was taken at the end of the course by Naisha Ahsian, the person behind the the Crystal Ally Cards and Crystalis Institute in the US, who flew out here just for our course.
Crystal Earth Shamanism Workshop Group
Click on image to enlarge
At a higher resolution, the picture shows many more orbs than you can see here. In this version, you can probably make out three or four, and standing next to the woman on the far left, the head and shoulder of an etheric figure are faintly visible. We had just finished for the weekend with a beautiful group meditation for planetary healing and Naisha wasn't surprised to see them at all. When she took a look at it and said,
"Yes, they're always drawn to the light."
I'm down the front centre right with a beautiful orb hanging just above my head. And if you look really close, you'll be able to make out a perfect pyramid shape over my eyebrow centre. Then take a look at everybody else's, it seems to be just me....! The first time I spotted it I nearly freaked out.
I love the next shot.
Pyramid-shaped Orbs at Giza
Orbs come in many shapes, but the geometrical ones are my favourite. Cheryl Scott, the woman who took this photo, says, "This photo was taken on a pilgrimage to the Great Pyramid and surrounding structures on the Giza Plateau. The photo was taken on 11/11/04 right after an impromptu meditation in the middle of the shadows of 4 red granite pillars that cast a shadow of 1111. The time was 11:11. The location of the Funerary Temple was next to the Sphinx, which is about one mile or so from the Great Pyramid. At the time of this photo, my husband and I were walking out of the Funerary Temple to the Sphinx for a meditation for World Peace. When we developed our film, we saw these 11 floating Pyramids captured only on this one shot. We did not use a flash. It was with a digital camera: Sony Cyber-shot: 5.0 Mega Pixel camera. We thought this was pretty amazing to find 11 floating pyramids just one minute after our impromptu meditation on 11/11/04 at 11:11.
So, are they intelligent? Another orb investigator Julie Ryder claims that she can communicate with orbs. She's got truck loads of photos with them grouping into specific patterns that she requests, like "I'd like to see a grid formation please." Then she'll take a shot of the space in front of her, view the finished picture and voila, they show up in the frame and have formed into a grid. She, like many others, took it up as a hobby initially (you don't really need much more than a decent camera when you wanna try and catch orbs) and now she actually takes groups of people on photographic orb expeditions and says the success rate for capturing shots is pretty high. I wish I had one of hers to show you, but I've seen some of them and they are awesome.
There are plenty of other great anomalous images that can be captured on film besides orbs too. Here's an amazing photo of fellow Aussie, Justis Barrymore, which was taken during a sound healing workshop I believe, and you can see the density of the man beside him - much more anchored here than Justis is, eh? And how about those wings?
This next one is of a Reiki teacher, taken by Paul C in the States. His teacher had come over to his house for a lesson, and asked him at one point to take his photo so that Paul could see his aura. Neither Paul or his teacher had ever seen a photo like it before, and I can honestly say this is one of the best photos I've ever seen too. I love the way you can actually see the etheric sheaths become less and less dense toward the edges. As a yoga teacher, this fits in perfectly with the yogic understandings of how the aura itself is composed of many "layers", and my studies of quantum theory back up the notion that we are indeed multi-dimensional beings, and the frequencies we emit exist in realms that are 4-D, 5-D etc, up to 11D according to Super-String theory, which mathematically works at its most elegant form in 11 dimensions). Could the photo have picked up the frequencies around the Reiki master's aura that are in the 4th, 5th and 6th dimensional levels? It was certainly a factor for me in deciding whether this was a genuine photo or not. Paul is adamant that it hasn't been touched-up in any way, and he told me to beware when I put this up because when he did, he got tons of email saying that it was a fake, and I should expect that. What-Ever.
I'm gonna do what he did. Delete them. People need to see this.
I'm gonna do what he did. Delete them. People need to see this.
Reiki Master's Aura
I've got a whole stack more but that's probably more than enough for now. I'd love to start an anomalies gallery here, so please email me with any of your own examples. I'm just warming up too. Wait 'til you see the others I have in store. Check out my profile for contact details, and start sending!
Thursday, March 17, 2005
part of the change.com
Click on the link to register yourself as an active member of the human species that is willing to be "part of the change".
The site is not quite up yet, but please bookmark the link and come back to it once it's active. It was mentioned it on the call earlier today and it sounds like a fabulous idea. I'm sure there'll be many resources on the site to help us feel like there IS something we can do. It's so easy to think that we can't do anything as individuals, but that's a wrong belief.
I saw some interesting figures last year regarding the impact one person can have to create change, and according to one study, one person has the capability of reaching 14 million people. It also concluded that most of the revolutionary acts that have changed our world for the better have been instigated by less than 7% of the total human population, which is hardly anything...so take heart, and if you feel drawn to participate in some way, please visit the site.
The site is not quite up yet, but please bookmark the link and come back to it once it's active. It was mentioned it on the call earlier today and it sounds like a fabulous idea. I'm sure there'll be many resources on the site to help us feel like there IS something we can do. It's so easy to think that we can't do anything as individuals, but that's a wrong belief.
I saw some interesting figures last year regarding the impact one person can have to create change, and according to one study, one person has the capability of reaching 14 million people. It also concluded that most of the revolutionary acts that have changed our world for the better have been instigated by less than 7% of the total human population, which is hardly anything...so take heart, and if you feel drawn to participate in some way, please visit the site.
Master Class Moment
I just spoke to Neale Donald Walsch on the phone. Cool!
I was on my weekly tele-conference call, as part of the Spiritual Cinema Master Class, and he was this week's guest. All of us who had comments or questions were able to jump in and I relayed a much-abridged version of the eclipse story. It was great to be able to thank him in person as CWG was such an instrinsic part of discovering my Pleiadian roots. He came back on the line and said, " You might not believe this, but I knew before you began the story that you were going to tell me that [about the Pleiades]. Every time I look up at the sky, I look for that very spot. Let's just say, we recognise each other."
On my GOD, Neale! That's unreal!
And then Stephen Simon said something about how all of us have a connection to the stars, and for him it was Sirius.
And these guys are making movies. BIG movies.
I frickin love it.
I was on my weekly tele-conference call, as part of the Spiritual Cinema Master Class, and he was this week's guest. All of us who had comments or questions were able to jump in and I relayed a much-abridged version of the eclipse story. It was great to be able to thank him in person as CWG was such an instrinsic part of discovering my Pleiadian roots. He came back on the line and said, " You might not believe this, but I knew before you began the story that you were going to tell me that [about the Pleiades]. Every time I look up at the sky, I look for that very spot. Let's just say, we recognise each other."
On my GOD, Neale! That's unreal!
And then Stephen Simon said something about how all of us have a connection to the stars, and for him it was Sirius.
And these guys are making movies. BIG movies.
I frickin love it.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Dancefloor Etiquette Tip # 3
"I'm blue when I wanna be blue
I'm green when I wanna be mean,
I'm red when I'm out of my head
I'm yellow when I wanna be seen
I'm brown when I wear a frown
I'm gold when I wear a crown
I dance when I wannna get down
Colours make the world go 'round."
"earth is the place" - nathan haines
WAVE Recordings, 2001
If you know the song, hope it reminds you of good times. It's one of my favourite house tracks ever, and the vocals provided by Verna Francis are sublime. I don't think I'll ever tire of it, especially because of the chorus, which I love singing on and off dancefloors...
"Earth is the place that I live,
Love is the space that I give
'Cos I'm a woman
'Cos I'm a Woma-aaa-an!"
Which brings me to Dancefloor Etiquette Tip # 3:
Singing on the Dancefloor - When not to do it.
Let's face it. Most of us have done it at some point, and there's nothing wrong with that. After all, singing is unreal fun and it's good for you! It makes you feel absolutely amazing too sometimes. I wish more people would believe in their voices a bit more and sing. BUT, when it comes to the dancefloor, I think there needs to be a few rules...
1. Don't sing unless you actually know the words.
I used to go out with someone who was incredibly romantic, and he'd often sing along to love songs to me on the dancefloor, which was cool, but he often didn't know the words, and he'd get to those sections and try to fake it, which was bad.
2. Don't sing in someone's face if you have bad breath or worse, bad teeth.
Totally obvious.
3. Don't start singing to the rest of the dancers because you're on the dancefloor alone, unless you're in drag.
We've probably all been ambushed at one time or another - a person you don't know starts to move in a little too close to your personal space, so close that beads of their sweat occassionally flick onto your skin or face (eek!) and they begin to dance with you, singing, trying to engage with you by looking into your eyes while moving and smiling wildly (while you're trying to move away yourself, smiling politely, but thinking, "I've got to get away RIGHT now"). They keep trying to dance with you though, so you grab the nearest friend and hide behind them, or run for the bar. The only thing that can save a situation like this is totally hot looks, but that's a rarity.
4. Don't sing directly in anybody else's ear unless you know what pitch is.
Don't you know you just sound painful?
5. Definitely no soccer-type "woo-woo!" chants, under any circumstances, and just in case you don't know, absolutely NO whistles.
Otherwise, do it well, and be a star!
So, if you feel ready for something fun, this Friday March 18, Wonderland is having its opening night and it looks like it'll be a complete ball. The DJ line-up is great, and with Arlen de Silva, Fernandito and myself in the Wonderland Room, and Baby Lemonade, luscious Matt Thomas and Rollerboy aka the gorgeous Daniel Humphries in the Wonder Bar. It's a great recipe for disco madness of the highest order. Toni Jaye, Vivien St James and Jono Franscisco are all doing shows on the night, and it's gay & straight-friendly, so if it sounds like your thang, make sure you email me as RSVPs are essential for entry. We've also got a special DVD that were giving away to promote the night.
It's happening at Upstairs, Rear Soho lane, Prahran (off Grattan St). Be there.
Friday, March 11, 2005
Frequency-Specific
Someone asked me the other day, “So what’s going to happen in 2012, Liz ?” If you don’t know about the Mayan calendar, astronomy or prophecy, you may not have learned that Timeship Earth and the entire solar system is rapidly moving through space to arrive at a grand alignment with the Sun and the galactic core on the solstice of Dec 21, 2012. In virtually every indigenous culture’s folklore, and in many ancient sacred texts, you will find some reference to this date or time in our evolution. This isn't the first time in Earth's history that we have cycled into this position in the heavens.
Many of our ancestors have left clues as to what to expect, and how to navigate our way through. Myths, customs and esoteric lore descendent from prehistoric times indicate that cosmic rays from a Galactic core explosion catastrophically affect the Earth and solar system in recurrent cycles. The most recent event occurring near the end of the last ice age, roughly 13,000 years ago, at the same time that the last remaining fragments of the Atlantean maritime empire are said to have sunk to the bottom of the sea.
Earth and the solar system will be directly facing the galactic core (did you see the story last week about the 6 regular "pulses" they recorded coming from it? wild) in a north-south direction, and the Sun will move across from east to west, perfectly crossing the centre of the galaxy while we sit in the middle. From our view on Earth, we will be able to see the arrow in the bow of the constellation Saggitarius pointing directly at the galactic core on the right, and on the left, in the constellation of Scorpio, the sting in the scorpion's tail will also be pointing directly at the galactic centre, as if to alert us to the right spot.
The ancient star lore connected with the Sagittarius and Scorpius constellations indicated the location of the Galactic center, and it conveyed the idea of an explosive outburst. What happens on the day is anyone's guess, but there is plenty of stuff out there to look at if this is something that sparks your interest. All of the planets in our solar system are heating up too, according to some ongoing Russian research, indicating that the solar system as a whole may experiencing some kind of galactic season, and that what we think is causing global warming on Earth may require a larger perspective. It may not be a purely Earth-based phenomena.
Could it be that as we move closer to this alignment, it is already beginning to exert more of an influence over our neighbourhood? Are we already being subjected to a whole set of new frequencies that will usher in a shift of some kind? Is there something happening at the centre of our Galaxy that we are beginning to detect?
I just watched a DVD the other night entitled “The Secrets of Alchemy”, by Jay Weidner, and in it he details his real-life Indiana Jones quest from Southern France to Peru as he attempts to decode the puzzling inscription of the Great Cross of Hendaye. The translation has eluded some of the world’s greatest minds for centuries, and Jay was able to show how he not only decoded the inscription (which led him to an identical cross in Peru, near Cusco), but that the Cross itself represents the actual Great Cross in the skies that the Earth will be right smack in the middle of on that 2012 date. He was helped greatly in his endeavour through the writings of the 20th century alchemist, Fulcanelli, so it seems that even the alchemists were down with 2012, and wanted to preserve their knowledge about it in stone for the time when it might come in handy.
The cross near Cusco, in Peru, was placed there long ago by some unknown persons as a marker that this remote highland town, with its numerous granite stone caves several hundred feet above sea level, was a “safe place,” and it seems that that is what the alchemists were trying to tell us.
This post is not about whether I agree that there will be a pole shift, or whether the world is going to end. Just wanted to get that straight.
Don’t you feel, at some level, that we may be just around the corner from something big though? As we watch the stage show that the media calls the news and go about our days, do you ever get the nagging sensation that humanity may be just hanging on, by the tips of our fingers? We are bombarded from the cradle to the grave by a media-military-industrial complex that spends billions each year on wars, disinformation, promoting mediocrity, endless low self-esteem and fear campaigns, all in the effort to keep us as distracted and disconnected from nature, ourselves and each other as possible. Have you ever thought about why our lives are geared that way?
Maybe you haven’t stopped to think about it, but I know you feel it. Every single thing on this planet feels it. It’s that feeling that our lives have all taken on this new level of intensity, that time is shrinking, that minutes seem more like nanoseconds. Relationships, careers, families, religions, education, governments, and all parts of the biosphere are under more stress it seems than ever before. All are undergoing radical shifts. Much that has been hidden or suppressed for a long time is coming to light, often accompanied by pain or healing or both. In your own life lately, how much more flexibility have you needed to exercise in order to maintain balance? How much have things been shaken up? How much have you wanted to stir things up yourself? Do you feel the need to do some mental or emotional housecleaning so that you can let go of the wrong beliefs or situations that no longer serve you? We know, on some level, that we’ve reached a turning point, and that change is the only certainty to our survival.
I believe that we are on the cusp of some kind of transformation that the planet as whole experiences. Some kind of fundamental shift in the way we view ourselves, or our world. Here's an interesting link to the Octave Timeline, which is a graphic of creation cycles, based on the Mayan Calendar and Astrology. This resonated with me a lot, but a "shift" could manifest in an infinite number of ways. I believe that it is intrinsically linked to the way that we deal with the challenges before us, individually and as a species, over the next few years.
The only way I can completely explain how I think each of us will fare on the road to 2012 can be summed up in just two words, frequency-specific, but first I need to explain a few points, for context.
1. You have a frequency signature as clearly as you have fingerprints, and it is hard-wired into your brain’s neural-net and comes from your DNA. The Mayan’s call it your Galactic Signature, and each person’s signature occupies one of 260 positional places on the sacred calendar, the Tzolkin. It dictates the way we perceive the world. It explains why we each have a unique experience of life.
2. We are quite literally generators of frequency. For example, the heart generates the largest field in the body and can be as wide as 12 feet in diameter. I'm sure we all know the feeling of being within someone's heart field, especially if they loved you deeply. We can measure the frequencies in our bodies with machines like MRI's. The most important part of the name Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) isn’t magnetic, but resonance (which is created by frequency). The machine measures the frequencies generated by the different organs inside your body so it can produce a photo of your insides. The resulting image is governed by the specific frequencies your body generates. Words, thoughts and actions also produce frequencies. These frequencies can be visualized as vibrating lines of magnetic flux laden with information. Check out the diagrams at the Heart Math Institute, they're cool!
3. The mind is a process of consciousness coming through set neurological pathways, and the neurons actually acy like tiny antennas tp pick up and process data in the form of electro-magnetic signals. We generally access quite a narrow band of information from the entire electro-magnetic spectrum and we can only process that which we are wired to do so. But we have the potential in our neurons to access the entire range. Think about how much of our brains are not being used right now.
4. We don’t see with our eyes, they merely let the photons of light in. Our brains process that data and then converts it into images inside our heads that we see "outside”. Some people are able to process a broader range of frequencies (think broadband as opposed to dial-up), if the neural net has more active connections.
This explains, to a small extent, why some people experience “paranormal” phenomena. It really peeves me that there’s this dumb-ass “paranormal” tag to things like psychic abilities etc, as this is stuff we are all equipped to do. We don’t just have a “sixth" sense. We have a multitude of other in-built technologies that give us the ability to process information that comes from beyond our five sense reality. This is completely NORMAL. This is also our birthright.
5. Directed intensity of consciousness creates our reality. The more coherent the consciousness, the more coherent the reality. Intention is everything.
So, having said all that, I believe that we are all frequency-specific, therefore our experience of reality is frequency-specific to us.
The Eclipse story is a pretty good example of how this works. If my intent had been less passionate or heartfelt than it was, I may never have met Alan and Gerard, and I could’ve hooked up with the wrong people, gotten stranded somewhere, or worse. Any number of probabilities for potential outcomes exists in the quantum sea. It’s totally up to you as to which which one is refelected back to you.
I've learned through experience that you can create your reality by choosing which frequency you want to be living at, and that is determined largely by the feelings that you generate in your heart, and how that guides the actions you take in the world. When you're feeling love, for example, Bruce Lipton at Stanford has been able to demonstrate how it totally re-shapes your DNA, and creates a cascade of positive effects on your body and mind. You are in control of your DNA, but no-one else can do this work for you.
I believe that this current world geo-political climate is a replay of an old drama, that humans have been on this planet for millions of years and that advanced civilizations have come and gone many times before ours. Their fingerprints are everywhere, and if you're looking for something fabulous to read, pick up a copy of Dead Men's Secrets by Jonathan Gray, or Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race, by Michael Cremo for unexplainable artifacts and proof that everything you learned about our origins in history class was wrong.
As we replay this old drama, with Bush playing the last Babylonian Emperor at the "End of History", we are faced once again with the choice: Evolve or Die.
Do we go down the path of fear, and blow ourselves up again, as it seems we are destined and even encouraged to do, making Earth yet another desolate Mars-like ghetto in the solar system?
Or do we choose to trust our hearts and feelings, our intuition, our own logic and sense of right and wrong, over what we are told, or sold?
Do we finally choose the path of love-wisdom?
Expansion or contraction? Short-term vision or Cosmic Inheritance?
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
The Four Agreements
1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
2. Don't Take Anything Personally
3. Don't Make Assumptions
4. Always Do Your Best
One of the links on my sidebar is for Danielle Lin's radio archives and I've included the link here to listen to the fabulous interview with Don Miguel Ruiz as he and Danielle rap for an hour about the Toltec way of living, which is articulated in "The Four Agreements".
I first heard Don Miguel being interviewed about three years ago and ever since then I've made these four insights into living a peaceful and joyous life, a big part of mine. They are so simple, so uncomplicated. It's not always easy to follow them completely(especially the First Agreement if you like to say cunt a lot, as we've already covered), but I can vouch that these four little phrases will work wonders for you if you choose to live by them. The book is available widely too and is well worth getting.
It's great that Danielle has this interview archived so you can check him out for yourself. She's quite an articulate host and he sounds gorgeous with his softly-spoken South American voice. If you like the show, I highly recommend checking out the nearly four years of archives available on her site.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Greetings, Pleiadian! (Part 2)
See my archive for Part 1 of this story Peepz! Be warned, if you are in a hurry, read this later, or in bits..it's bloody long.
Ring Of Fire
As my gaze scanned the small, crowded bus depot in Adelaide that December morning, I had all but given up trying to find a lift with anybody from the bus, as I hadn't met anybody on the truck stops we'd made along the way. The ticket counter wasn't open yet, so I decided that I should just wait there until it opened, and figure out what to do next after that. In the meantime I could put out some feelers and try and sense whether anybody else there looked like they might be headed for the eclipse. At that point I was still convinced I should try to get on a connecting bus to Ceduna, where most of the eclipse watchers would be, but I was sure that the tickets were sold out. I hadn't ruled out hitching on the road, but hoped it wouldn't come to that. I was also a little dubious about the weather. It was seven thirty in the morning, and the clouds formed a thick blanket of grey above the city.
The day before, I'd checked the weather forecasts to see what the outlook was like and it was sketchy. There was going to be cloud cover in most of the places along the path of totality, but the forecast said that the clouds should clear to just a scattering by mid or late afternoon. It might have prevented me from going at another time, but because I felt so driven to go I trusted that wherever I ended up would be the right place, with the right people and the right conditions. Still, I couldn't help having a slight sense of trepidation over whether all my efforts would end up in travelling over a thousand miles to watch a total eclipse of a total eclipse.
So with all that and more whirring around my skull, I let my eyes skim the crowd while my otherware kicked in at the non-local levels, and before I knew it I couldn't help but notice these two guys who were standing in one of the aisles a few feet away from me. It was their wooden case that first caught my attention and it got me pretty excited when it looked liked it was just the right size for a telescope. When I looked for who might own it, I scoped them. They looked a little fatigued, but ready for action.
The tall one that looked like Tom Selleck was dressed in loose khaki shorts with cargo pockets, a matching polo shirt, chunky white socks and brown suede walking boots. Short blondish-brown hair peeked out from beneath a baseball cap that made his rugged features look slightly boyish, but he looked to me to be around forty.
Standing next to him was a guy of similar age, who looked like your classic computer programmer or science genius. He was more slightly built, had a pale complexion and black rimmed glasses. He was wearing a black leather jacket over his knitted jumper and polo shirt (which was underneath and neatly tucked in to his jeans), a black belt and some well-worn brown leather shoes.
I was totally loving their look. I had to meet them.
I approached them and asked if they were going to see the eclipse. I think they might have been a bit surprised to have been approached but they smiled and said yes. I found out that their names were Gerard and Alan, then they told me that they'd been on the same bus from Melbourne I'd been travelling on. I had been all the way up the front in seat 1D behind the driver, and hadn't seen them behind me in seats 11C and D.
I told them that I was going to try to get to Ceduna. They glanced at each other making me feel uneasy and they said that the weather forecast didn't look so good there. It was much better where they were going, the Wirraminna Rail Siding, in the desert, but first they had to go to Port Augusta where they would be picking up their car.
It became instantly apparent that going to the desert over the coast was a way better idea given the weather, so I figured that the best thing for me should be to try to get to Woomera with them (which is where I thought the Wirraminna Rail Siding was). I imagined this really cute country town where there would be balloons and streamers in the streets and lots of bakeries. I thought that we'd get there, mingle with the others who'd gathered, and then I could find accommodation and another lift back to Adelaide the next day. I asked that if I could get Port Augusta, would they let me hitch with them to Woomera? We all decided to have breakfast together and see.
As soon as we sat down they were pulling out all these crazy maps and charts that they'd downloaded off the net, one with a pencil line drawn by hand marking the path of totality. Others had bright highlighted sections where they'd made other notes. They had made all the calculations for latitude and longitude, timing down to the second, were a wealth of astronomical knowledge and they told me all about the amazing capabilities of the camera gear they'd brought. They were prepared for everything. I could not believe my luck. They even had spare eclipse glasses! They were able to tell me everything I needed to know and I really hoped it could all happen so that I could travel with them.
After breakfast I noticed that the ticket counter was about to open and I watched as about twenty people formed two queues in front of the two nearest windows. A third window had also opened but no-one seemed to want to go there and at first I stood at the end of one of them then figured it wouldn't hurt to ask, so I went over to the third window. When I asked if that was the right ticket counter for a bus ticket to Port Augusta I was told it was and got my ticket in about 30 seconds, beating everybody. It was a completely full bus, confirming to me again just how much we make our own luck.
The guys agreed to let me join them in Port Augusta and I felt this wave of gratitude leave my body and travel out into the cosmos. As I looked at them hanging out together with their impressive assortment of camera gear, tripods, bags and telescope, with their open, friendly faces, smart casual clothing and a tendency toward geekishness, they looked like my very own Batman and Robin. I smiled inwardly. My prayers HAD been answered! I DID find the right people to travel with right there on the bus! It was a moment I'll never forget.
After that I found a pay phone and rang Bimbo Deluxe, a bar I had a residency at, and left a message letting them know I wouldn't be coming in for my set that night.
We got on the next bus, me alone behind the driver in 1A again, and them just a few seats behind. I spent a bit of time visualising a bright blue, cloudless sky for the eclipse, and reminding myself to be in the moment, trusting as much as possible that life would take me where I needed to go, as the frequencies of gratitude for all that had occurred up until then filled me and flowed outwards from me. All the seeds sown by reading the CWG series which had tied up so many loose ends for me in my esoteric studies, were beginning to sprout and I wanted to breathe as much life into them as possible. I wanted to see how they might grow, as I did. I thought about Time. Then I slept deeply.
"Alan and Gerard spent the trip working out the orbital distance of the Moon and the rotation of the Earth in order to finally understand the path taken by the Moon during the eclipse and the speed at which it travelled. This was facilitated by the calculator in the mobile phone. Alan also worked out photo exposures and bracketing points using full and ½ stops."
This is what Gerard wrote about what he and Alan did on the bus to Port Augusta, in his own account of our travels called "Eclipse 2002".
He has even named the subtitles in Chapter 1, which will give you a greater idea of what's to come.
Subtitle 1: Alan's, Gerard's and Liz's Big Time-Warp Adventure
Subtitle 2: Port Augusta or Bust!
Subtitle 3: The Kangaroo Did It
I believe all time is happening in one eternal now. Especially since studying the Maya's supreme understandings of cosmic timing cycles and mathematics. Whenever I begin to worry about anything "in the future", I ask myself, "Am I OK, in this moment?", and the answer is always yes, so it's a good way for me to quell my fears and anxieties, and to trust life more. I really started this practice on a regular basis during this trip. And I was more than ok, as I was soon to see...
When we arrived at Port Augusta, the sky had cleared and a few tufts of white dotted the sky, which was a relief, and a beautiful gleaming silver sedan met us at the terminal. Nice.
The guys had so much gear it was hard to believe they'd carried it all by themselves and for a few moments I had my doubts that we would fit everything of theirs into the car, let alone have room for me or my scant belongings. After some tricky packing though, a space was made available for me to squeeze into in the back seat, behind Alan who was in the passenger seat, and with Gerard expertly handling the wheel, we set off for last minute supplies.
The whole transition from the bus to the car couldn't have been timed more perfectly or executed with more ease. It was a good sign, but once we got in the car I really knew that the gods had smiled down on me. They could've had a big old pick up truck for all I knew, but instead I was able to relax in the luxury of black leather seats and enjoy the views from air conditioned comfort, gaze out at the sky through the sunroof and tinted windows and tell the outside temperature from a LED display in the wood dash. To top it all off, I had just met the two coolest, smartest straight guys I'd met in ages, and we were about to embark on a truly amazing adventure together. I was happy and grateful to be alive.
We stopped in Pt Augusta's main shopping drag for some lunch, supplies and fuel for the trip. After some bad cafe food Alan and I headed off to the supermarket while Gerard attended to some other business and we quickly dashed around picking up water, bags of fruit, nibbles, and chocolate (for me). I asked Alan if they'd like to have something to eat later, maybe for a picnic? This seemed like a good idea to him (I don't know if the guys, for all their planning, had considered the necessity for food at all), and I picked out a roast chicken and some salads. I completely forgot to buy a disposable camera in Adelaide so I tried finding one there only to discover they were sold out. There was a Woolies a block down too (also sold out of cameras), but I quickly purchased a cotton blanket as I had nothing warm with me, and hoped it would come in handy, seeing I already had my pillow and I had no idea where I was sleeping that night. All I knew was that the eclipse was in less than four and a half hours and when we met up with Gerard a short time later, it was agreed that there was no time to spare, so we, and the fully-laden car, swung back onto the road and headed for the outback.
Alan had a collection of maps in the glove box that he would refer to from time to time as Gerard brought us up to a comfortable cruising speed of 130 kph. ETA was going to be 17:45 at our desired spot.
They were both great story tellers, although you could see that Alan's more outgoing personality was more suited to it, but Gerard certainly didn't seem concerned, and I realized later that even though Gerard had heard Alan tell most of his stories several times before, he obviously still liked to hear them, and he often helped coax a story out of Alan's memory banks by reminding him of some of the funny details. I'd asked Gerard earlier why even though he lived in Melbourne, his car had been quite conveniently waiting for us in Port Augusta, at the bus terminal. It was the first of many stories that I heard that during trip that would change me forever. They began to describe how they had been driving through the South Australian countryside a month earlier, taking photos and generally enjoying a break from work for a few days when they had hit a kangaroo when it suddenly jumped out in front of the car and stopped them all in their tracks. Gerard's car had been in the shop at Port Augusta getting extensive repairs done ever since, and as the eclipse was occurring at the same time they could collect the car, they decided (at the last minute too) to come and get it and see the eclipse at the same time.
At the end of their story we all fell silent for a moment as it dawned on us that their encounter with the kangaroo had actually created the conditions for us to meet as we did. The kangaroo was pivotal to the whole story and we knew it. I silently thanked the kangaroo for it's role in all this, and for the ripples that that moment created when it lost its life that night, and I marvelled at the way our lives had intersected.
Whatever green countryside there was around Pt Augusta soon made way for flat, dry earth covered in clumps of long grasses, low bushes and small trees as we sped towards Woomera. We passed a few old run-down towns that looked like the only public outlet was the petrol station, and I wondered how people out there spent their time, and how children, if any, could cope with the sheer barrenness and isolation. Then we passed Pimba. It was so third world I was totally taken aback. I felt like I'd stepped into an alternate reality, into another version of Australia, one I would never want to dream into reality, but it already was. It was quite a sight. We all unanimously agreed that it was a "hole" of gargantuan proportions, a "standard reference hole" at that, as we passed the shabby weatherboard houses that all seemed to be just barely standing, with each and every backyard sporting massive piles of rubbish and broken down, rusting machinery. I thought I'd seen bad, after all, some of my poor Filipino relatives used to live in houses where to get there, you'd have to walk on wooden planks to avoid the mud, streams and little fishes everywhere, but this was BAD. I could see why the area we were fast approaching was home to a detention centre for illegal immigrants, a former nuclear missile testing ground and hot spot for UFO sightings.
There was nothing. For miles around, nothing. Just red earth, a bit of scrub, and the wind and sky. I must admit as well as watching for the clouds to clear up even more, I was constantly on the lookout for any unusual aerial phenomena as I'd thoroughly done my research and the probability for a sighting was in my estimation, high.
While we drove to our destination we all got to know each other a bit better which was easy as we all seemed to like one another. At first I was a little unsure about whether Alan was actually happy about me being in tow, as the two of them had conferred briefly before deciding to let me come, and I'd picked up on a vibe. I couldn't blame him if it he wasn't all too pleased, as my coming along had interfered with their plans and well, "guy time". I soon put those thoughts to rest though as it as it soon became apparent to all of us that that the extra pair of hands I now afforded them, might've actually come in quite handy. We went over a few things about the way the guys wanted to set up their gear, and what we would do when totality arrived. Then they started describing to me how they would like me to help change a solar filter on "the Lens", this massive super-telephoto thing. They explained that When Gerard said "totality", I had to take the filter off and to put it in a special Tupperware container that they had brought with them. I was like, "Oh my God, are these guys for real? We're actually practicing a DRILL for taking photos!". Say what you will, I thought they were unreal.
I know that sort of daggy technical stuff about photography and math and astronomy that we talked a lot about is pretty boring for most people but I frickin love it! And I didn't even need a camera after all! It was almost too much, too good. When we passed Woomera it dawned on me that we weren't going to stop there, and that I'd gotten my wires slightly crossed. But as we drove past it, I thanked my lucky stars I wasn't going. The town looked horrible, with a big vintage fighter plane mounted on a big metal brace near the "Welcome to Woomera" sign near the town's entrance, to show off our so-called military "might", right(?), and the selfish misuse-use of our country's resources by stupid white guys who are all dead now anyway. I didn't see one person anywhere. The whole town looked deserted and felt like a museum you'd never go want to go visit. It didn't look like anywhere I could find accommodation at either, that's for sure.
The Wirraminna Rail Siding was another 73 km on from Woomera, as I quickly learned, as the guys handed me the map and asked me to calculate the distance. When I realised that I had no plan of action for after the eclipse, or anywhere to stay, and that I was in the middle of nowhere, I decided to just go with the flow, and didn't worry too much about it, and drew comfort from the fact that at least I'd had the foresight to bring dinner.
When we started getting close, the energy in the car changed from quiet expectation to a more intense, hair prickling kind of anticipation. I'd been chatting quite animatedly with the guys from the back seat the whole way there, but now I was nearly bouncing up and down like a child with excitement as we passed the parked cars, then bus loads of Japanese tourists, four-wheel drives and camper vans. The Japanese tourists had lined up all their shiny camera gear in front of their respective buses and had about 30-50 telescopes per bus pointed at the Sun. We kept driving though, for another couple of k's, headed for as close to the centre line of the path of totality as possible. When they explained this to me, I nearly exploded with glee, although I didn't really grasp the enormity of this fact until the moment of the eclipse itself.
The sky had finally cleared to just a bit of late afternoon haze, and the temperature was up around 27 degrees, a far cry from the sombre 11 degrees that morning in Adelaide. I was being taken to a spot on the earth that would be precisely in line with the Moon and the Sun as the eclipse took place. I thought back to the day before when all of this had been just a dream. I knew I was experiencing life at a much a higher frequency than the one I normally did, and things that would normally take a lot longer to materialize, seemed to be taking form almost instantly.
We finally saw a place where we could park. There were a few people dotted around the brush nearby. Some guy was hanging out at his ute with his sheepdog about 30 metres away. He looked liked a local with his cut-off sleeves and messy shoulder length hair. There were a couple with a tent next to their car some distance away too, as well as a tourist bus parked on the other side of the road behind us. Although there were really only a few others in the close vicinity, the air still felt tantalisingly pregnant with expectation. We began unpacking the car and setting up all the gear. Alan had cut some sheets of polystyrene back in Melbourne to make a viewing box and we set about putting it together.
I had mentioned to Alan and Gerard earlier that I was interested in UFO's and I was secretly hoping I might get to see one fly past as the only other time was a long time ago, and it was pretty far away. I kept my eyes peeled to the skies, which by now were absolutely clear of any haze and a vivid, bright blue. YAY.
During the 1991 eclipse inMexico City, tens of thousands of spectators saw a huge metallic disc sitting stationary as it slowly spun in the air and emitted a reddish glow. It was captured by 17 different cameras at the time and you can get the videos online if you do a search. Anyway, it was in the air above the city for 30 minutes before, during, and after the eclipse. But that is something I have learned since.
We did the practice run of the drill for when totality struck, when Alan would have me change the solar filter on the camera lens. Gerard was supposed to alert us when totality came, which only lasted 32 seconds, by saying "Totality". I would quickly remove the filter and say "Off", and put it into the special Tupperware container, heh. When totality was nearly over I was to put the filter back on and say "On" and he would continue snapping. It was a pretty funny and well, beyond cute for me. We laughed a lot while we were practicing too, so you can see they don't take themselves too seriously. Along with their brain power, personalities, preparedness and 5 star transport, it was everything that worked for this li'l diva. It was so hard to believe how amazing this was all turning out, but I kept reminding myself to accept it, because it was exactly what I'd set out to create. I was ticking off all the things on my checklist of requirements effortlessly. They were the perfect eclipse companions.
It was getting close to the time when "first touch" was going to occur and both Alan and Gerard started getting really anxious and a bit fidgety. They made last minute checks of their gear, which turned out to be good thing, as Gerard realised that one of the lenses on his camera wasn't right and changed it. They checked their watches, which had been synchronised to the second (NO! Really? Yes, REALLY), and I got some of the prepared polystyrene board so Alan could project the Sun's image onto it from the telescope's eyepiece while they both took pictures. The wind was up and it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold it so that it was straight, but I managed, and they were able to capture all the crucial moments without too much trouble in the end, but how the hell they'd planned to do all that on their own, I have no idea.
Then we watched.....these are images captured on the board.
"First Touch"
We were soooo excited when this moment finally arrived.
Quarter Covered
Halfway There
We occupied our time by switching from eclipse glasses to looking through the Super-Lens and watching the projector board. After 40 minutes or so I noticed that the desert was beginning to look darker and redder. It was so beautiful with the contrast in colours so much more pronounced all around us. Then it became darker and darker very quickly. The soil, the rocks, the trees, everything now looked like a deep blood red. We looked at each other and knew that this is what we'd all come so far to see. The hairs began to stand on end on the backs of our necks. The Moon's disc was almost all the way across the Sun, and we couldn't wait for the last of it to be covered.
"All is ready. The sky is clear of any obstruction, the gear is set-up and as good as it can be. 14.5cm telescope, low power eyepiece and reflective board, Nikon 1200mm lens on a cinematographic tripod with a Nikon F100 behind it loaded with several feet of Fuji's finest 400 ASA film ready to go. All the planning has been for this moment. Researching the websites for eclipse locations, photographic exposure tables, rain and cloud-cover forecasts; the planning, the buying, the hiring, the building, the packing and the travelling have come down to this moment, which finds Alan, Gerard and Liz at the side of the Stuart Highway A87 halfway between Pimba and Glendambo in South Australia on Wednesday Dec 4 2002, at 19:40 and 43 seconds local summer time." More from "Eclipse 2002".
Then Gerard yelled out "Totality!" and exactly what happened next is rather hazy. I know that at some point filters must have been changed and photos were taken, but what I do remember is Gerard saying, "Liz, you should take the glasses off". I turned my back to the sun, whipped them off my face and when I jumped back to look at the sky, my jaw fell. It was so incredible. Oh my God, OH MY GOD, the COLOURS!" And then I was suddenly going "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!" at the top of my voice and started pogo-ing up and down on the spot like an African Masai tribeswoman, not caring at all what Alan and Gerard must have thought about my rather vociferous, ebullient display. It was just so stunningly beautiful. Think of Jodie Foster's face in Contact when she travelled through the wormhole and saw the galactic core for the first time. Ok? Awesome. That was me.
It was so ineffable, so untranslatable, to watch the perfect circle of the Moon's disc finally moving into place, and exactly covering the Sun's. The resulting diffuse flares of intensely-hued colours that began around the white-hot corona and radiated trails, filled the entire dome of the sky overhead and as far as one could see. They formed in streaks of rich fire-orange, electrically charged gold, plasma-perking purples, reds of all shades, the deepest royal blues and St Germain's violet flame. Small fiery orbs of intense orange, called Bailey's Beads, gathered and bubbled around the edges of the Moon's jagged mountain peaks and looked like liquid mercury. Stars became visible for those few moments, as did the planet Mercury, which hung like a small jewel in the sky beneath the Sun.
Nothing can prepare you for a what you see during an Eclipse. No photo can ever do it justice, no words can completely convey all the emotions that you experience or what your eyes actually see. It is like looking into the Eye of God. Here's a shot captured by Alan with the Super Lens.
Totality (returning soon)
At the end of 32 seconds, after the Moon began to move again, the first rays of light emerged again and for the briefest time, we were treated to the dazzling "diamond ring" effect that results. It's what most of the eclipse watchers as their favourite moment and I now know why.
The Diamond Ring
Physically being a part of that alignment makes you understand just how synchronised this universe is. As I watched the Moon gliding over the Sun, as our planet turned, I felt like I was a both a witness to and a part of a great galactic timing mechanism, and I was watching as the cogs were sliding perfectly into place. It stirred something so deep and ancient within me, my enduring connection to the Sun. Since the eclipse I have realised that I also have deep ties to the ancient Maya (I ene lokk like one) and now I understand that it was also the Mayan part of me that was so thrilled by it all. All I knew at the time was that I could never be the same again.
Those Mayans I tell you, what a cool bunch. One of their seventeen or so known calendars called the Tzolkin which was standardized for Earth over 2000 years ago, possibly longer, indicates that Dec 4, 2002 is:
13 T'zi
13 - Ascension. Rules all other numbers.
T'zi(Dog)
Guardian of the Mountains. Wolf of the Mountains. Earth. Mother Nature.
Spiritual Law and Material Law. This means that life is governed by law.
A good day for peace and a good day for justice. Seven capital sins.
Great spiritual guides. Special energy to communicate directly with Creator. Spiritual healers.
Spiritual Law and Material Law. This means that life is governed by law.
A good day for peace and a good day for justice. Seven capital sins.
Great spiritual guides. Special energy to communicate directly with Creator. Spiritual healers.
In the Dreamspell, it's is "kin 180": Yellow Spectral Sun
This is the statement given for this day in the calendar.
I Dissolve in order to Enlighten
Releasing Life
I seal the Matrix of Universal Fire
With the Spectral tone of Liberation
I am guided by my own power doubled
I govern the crown chakra. I transport the Yellow galactic spectrum.
Looking back I realise that the rays of light I was exposing myself to were in fact carriers of particular frequencies that open usually inactive codes within our DNA, often referred to as "junk". What a crock. It's not junk, it's programs and codes that help re-install our Otherware, and we all have it in our DNA.
All across the desert, from all the different groups of people scattered around us and beyond our line of sight came cries out to the sky like mine. People cheered, hooted, honked, laughed, screamed, clapped, cried. I could hear dogs howling. Their voices were carried by the outback winds high up into the air where they met and playfully merged with the sounds of others that had come from further away, then they dropped back down to earshot where my ears would catch them, and I could feel their wonder too. We all knew we were part of something infinitely greater than us, that we were seeing something incomparable, that we were part of some vast intelligence that permeates and synchronises the entire Cosmos.
The guys were similarly affected and started exclaiming things, which again are hazy. What is clear, is how we all just looked at each other at one point, and with crazed smiles across our faces, spontaneously hugged all at once, laughing. Then they both paced around our site afterwards saying things like, "No one can ever take this away from us. We can say WE WERE HERE", and "We saw it!" We really saw it!" and, "We can never say "Awesome" about anything else again!". I thought statements like these, especially from Gerard, were rather brave, as I couldn't imagine him having outbursts like this very often, and we all went "Yeah!" quite loudly in agreement...and we laughed that excited laugh like the one you do when you drink too much red cordial. At least I did.
We took more photos and continued to watch through the cameras or the on the projector board for at least another half an hour. The Sun had only been 14 degrees above the horizon when totality had occurred so the Sun set quickly as the last whiskers of the pinks and oranges of sunset trailed across the sky. We packed up and left there, as I continued to watch the sky out of the car's back window, for as long as any traces of light remained. By 9:15 they'd all disappeared, having been devoured by the by the encroaching darkness, and we were plunged into night once again.
Then I realised I could start looking for UFOs so I spent the next twenty minutes scouring the skies some more.
We were all still pretty high from the eclipse experience, but by that time we had settled into our own reveries and the car was silent. We decided to drive down the road a little further until we found a spot to stay at for the night. The guys figured they'd just sleep in the car, and that was fine by me. I was SO glad I'd bought that blanket, let me tell you, as it can get nippy out there in the desert, even in summer. We'd passed some lovely salt lakes on our way there during the day, but hadn't had time to stop so we decided to try and find one to make camp at. Gerard found a great spot down a dip off the road beside one of these giant salt lakes that was quietly shimmering as it reflected the starlight. As there was no moon or cloud, the stars lit up with sparkles over the black canvas of the sky. It had been awhile since I'd been out to the country and I'd forgotten just how many stars there were up there, but it was great to be reminded. I breathed in deeply and imprinted all I could about that moment into my being. The Milky Way was looking particularly milky, and when I remembered we had a telescope with us I nearly lost it.
I completely forgot all about stargazing that day, which is unusual for me. I'd wanted to bring my own telescope but knew it wasn't practical, and I hardly thought I would get the chance for sky watching without having my own transport. It was becoming more and more evident that our meeting was no accident. Every single thing that I had visualized was coming true, and I felt totally in the zone. The best part was that I could get an astronomy lesson too, something I hadn't even thought remotely possible when I left for Adelaide the night before. I'd only just begun studying backyard astronomy on my own for a few months at that stage, so I really appreciated the opportunity to learn some more from people who actually knew their stuff.
We set up a rug to sit on, a buffet was laid out on the boot of the car, and we had a fabulous starlight picnic, then Alan got to work putting the telescope back together. He'd not only painstakingly constructed the box for it, he's also done several clever modifications to the telescope itself. It was incredibly smooth to manoeuvrer and the viewfinder was mounted in such a way that made it permanently aligned to the eyepiece. Not bad compared to my clumsy thing, which was big and had a great lens, but needed constant adjusting. Gerard had a red-light torch for perusing the star map, and between them both they had all the star maps you could wish for, including a current one. I'd brought my Mighty Bright light as well so we consulted the maps for awhile under the open hood of the boot, deciding finally that we should definitely try to get a rare glimpse of the Andromeda galaxy, which was going to be low on the horizon, but still visible for a little while from where we were. It's the closest spiral galaxy to ours, and part of our local system of stars, but it's still 2.2 million light years away!
So we began. We looked at binary star systems including Sirius A and B, the Great Square of Pegasus, found Andromeda (it looked amazing, though tiny - but who cares, I saw it with my own eyes), some pretty star clusters, a wild nebula in the Orion constellation, and loads more. We had a ball. I was completely enthralled. Alan turned to me after awhile and asked whether there was anything I would like to see, and I faltered for a minute. I tried to pull a star's name, a constellation, anything from my rather limited astronomical knowledge that I'd like to view. Then I remembered! It slipped off my tongue so easily it was like it was something I said all the time: "I'd like to see The Pleiades please". With a quick look at the sky chart, he and Gerard quickly turned the scope into position and aimed. When Alan told me I could take a look, I put my eye up to the lens.
I could not have been less prepared for the reaction that I had next. It all happened in the instant when the photons of light, carried across space for my eyes to see, entered my retina. I was greeted by the most gorgeous display of hundreds of shining points of light, like perfect tiny diamonds gleaming on black velvet, in a beautiful cluster formation, with the seven main stars of the constellation contained within my field of view. It was breathtakingly beautiful and I gasped audibly. Within nanoseconds every part of my being down to my cells, seemed jolted awake from a sleep I didn't even know I was having, resounding with the recollection that those gorgeous stars I was looking at, were my home. Yes, home. H-O-M-E. I knew it. They knew it.
My heart was pounding with my sudden recollection and tears had welled up in my eyes. I kept repeating the word home inside my head, and I wanted to cry it was so beautiful, but I had to catch myself in front of the guys, as I didn't want to come across as a complete fruitcake. I didn't even know what to think myself. I had to process this. It was happening so fast. I composed myself and I think I said something like, "Wow". It was very hard to tear myself away from the telescope after that. I just couldn't stop looking.
NO, just jerkin with ya, heh.....sorry.
Anyway, it was undeniable. I was from there.
Everything in me knew that I was somehow deeply connected to this place, but how? I resolved to do some investigating when I got home. But that night in the Australian Outback, on my planetary home, beside a huge salt lake under the stars called Lake Hart (the name could not have been more perfect), I knew that my heart had guided me on this crazy, amazing journey so that I could remember - another home, a galactic home, and it was just as real. It thrilled me to the core. I was remembering who I was.
Gerard retired early that night, and went to sleep in the driver's seat fully reclined, while Alan and I told a few more stories. I'd asked him earlier in the car if he'd ever seen any UFO's and had hinted at something but didn't really want to discuss it much. But when we were alone I asked him to tell me again and he did, reluctantly at first, but then much more engagingly, as he began describing some unusual sightings he'd had growing up on the coast in New Zealand.
These were not some pissy two second glances at a tiny little light in the sky type of sightings, his were skilfully detailed, varied, and in one case he watched some craft over a few hours. He eventually worked out that there must have been a flight path near his home because he would regularly see them all following the same course. Commercial and Air Force planes would also fly past but whenever he would ring Air Traffic Control at any of the Air Force bases or airports, he would be told that it was one of their regular flights, just a bit off schedule. Then he would say, "NO, I saw Flight Number so and so depart on time, this was something else," which always fucked them up. I heard some pretty amazing stuff and realised there was more to this funny computer guy cum action hero, than I thought. It didn't surprise me in the least that we could have something like that in common. I've always been attracted to people that despite appearances, when you scratch their surface, you find that there's a whole lot more there.
Alan declared he was sleeping outside on the rug, and I stayed up late into the night, just me, the telescope, and the stars. I finally had to go to bed when I looked directly up at the sky overhead a couple hours later, and the black void turned into a flat plasma screen and the stars became eyes, and they were all looking at, Me. That was the limit. I was able to lie down quite comfortably in the back seat if I lay on my side in the Toblerone-shaped wedge that had formed under the reclined seats from the front. I adjusted my pillow, put the blanket over me and slept like a baby.
Since then a lot has happened, and my kin in the Pleiades are now a big part of my life. They have taught me so much. I'll write a lot more about them in later posts, trust me.
And for the next two and a half days Gerard, Alan and myself ended up staying together. I gave them several opportunities to ditch me, but we were really having a lot of fun, and they would always invite me to stay on. We were well matched intellectually, but we all had quite different worldviews, so it was nice challenge for us to be mutually respectful of each other's ideas while trying to converse with each other as coherently as possible. We spent much time on the road exchanging ideas. If Alan slept then Gerard and I would talk about stuff and vice versa.
They both worked as computer technicians, which is how they met, and pretty early on it became obvious that some of my ideas about reality were a little hard for them to take. They were always open-minded enough to let me speak though, and they'd bounce things off me too. We talked sporadically about some of the ideas in the CWG books and it sparked much interest and debate. I found out about a year later that Alan and Gerard had both decided to give the books a read a few months after our trip, and they did get a lot out of them, which was brilliant.
It was always reciprocally enlightening, being in their company. They were an absolute mine of information about all sorts of things and we never ran out of topics to discuss. And it wasn't long before I threw away my return bus ticket and we leisurely drove me around some of the most beautiful South Australian countryside on a very scenic route back to Melbourne. We went through quaint little towns that they'd found on previous jaunts, and I saw the constantly changing landscape from high lookouts and wide open roads.
I've experimented with stretching time ever since I first discovered that when you fall in love, you can make a kiss last an eternity. You slip into that space that is beyond time. It's not linear and third-dimensional, it's "natural" as opposed to mechanical; it's real "fourth-dimensional" time. You make a boring flight pass more quickly if you get good at it, or you can create an atmosphere at a party where a deep, lengthy, important conversation that seems to last for hours, passes in only twenty minutes. I've always liked bending and stretching time to suit my needs and on that trip it happened constantly, but it felt out of our hands for a lot, like we were caught in a strange time-warp, so in the end we just surrendered to it. "Is that the time?" was something we ended up saying more times than I can remember. And the best part was, it wasn't just me saying it, we all were.
We "parked" out the next night in a back street of a village. We got there quite late at night, and parked the car at what appeared to be a dead end street, with no neighbours to annoy. The next morning, we were mildly shocked to discover that we'd parked only a short distance away from the municipal dump! A few curious Jersey cows had congregated at the fence beside the car as well, and from beneath thick eyelashes, they were casually eyeing its sleeping inhabitants. The next night we were in the Barossa Valley, slightly more prepared, and we woke up to a gorgeous view of a hillside covered in rows and rows of lush green grapevines and blue sunny skies. Once we got back to Victoria, we made for the Grampians, where time seemed to bend and take on a mind of its own again. No matter how we tried to stick to a schedule, or drive faster it just seemed to take a really long time to get back to the City. We saw wild deer in the mountains though, which I loved, and we used the drive to delve a little deeper into our exchanges.
My cheeks welcomed the break from all the jokes as they'd begun to ache a little due to all the laughing, especially that last day. Alan had let loose with some of his real life death-defying adventures at around lunchtime and he had me crying with laughter a few times.
So at around dusk, the tone changed slightly and I got to hear about a poltergeist that he'd lived with for over a year, and some other pretty far-out stuff that had happened to him. Gerard spent some time wanting to discuss the Akashic Field, so I fielded questions from both of them about that for awhile. We talked about reincarnation, dimensions of reality co-existing in the same space without knowing about each other, consciousness, the astral world, the Noetic Sciences Institute, a whole lot of stuff that I really love and it was a nice way to leave things.
We'd gone from being complete strangers to all being deeply transformed in some way by our meeting, in three and a half days. We'd trusted in our flexibility in each moment, and stretched ourselves beyond our normal comfort zones, creating or participating in large and small miracles, so it seemed, at every turn. We used our brains, which came as a great joy to me as I don't get to talk quantum physics with many of my disco friends. It's not their fault I know...but it was a nice change. I also knew that I'd helped to open up their perspective in many ways, as they did for me, in HUGE ways. My heart knew that I had been drawn to them because their soul's urge for change, and expansion, had already begun, by nudging them into unconsciously creating the conditions for me to enter their lives. I'd definitely sent out a call for them too, for the same reasons. The difference was that they had no idea I was coming along. I, on the other hand, had been certain that I would find them.
We finally made it back to Melbourne sometime around 9 pm that night. It was a lot later than we all thought we'd be back by, and we'd all been together non-stop for 3 and a half days. On our way home, I told them where I lived and it turned out that Alan lived just around the corner from me! It was nice, as dropping me off didn't pose any inconvenience at all. We swapped numbers and said our farewells amidst bear hugs and kisses goodbye. It was good to be home, back to my bed, but I could've kept going for at least another day if I'd had to. They dropped me off right to my front door.
We all knew our meeting was meant to be, and it was. We've all kept in touch too, the Dynamic Duo and I. I'm forever in their debt for everything they shared with me, for their kindness, their generosity, their jokes, and for behaving like perfect gentlemen the entire time. Men like these are really rare... but if you are one them, you should try going to an eclipse!
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